Study of the early stages of the epitaxy of silicon on silicon

Abstract

Observations of low-energy electron diffraction patterns reveal that the epitaxial temperature for Si films is approximately 400°C on clean Si {111} surfaces and tends to be lower, although less well defined, on clean Si{100} surfaces. A few monolayers deposited at room temperature on{111} are amorphous, on{100} they exhibit the bulk structure. The recrystallization process of an amorphous surface layer occurs by way of an "intermediate" phase, characterized by periodic modulations of lattice spacing and scattering factor, and an "ideal" phase that corresponds to simple termination of the bulk lattice. The transition from the latter to the reconstructed surface structure occurs by way of antiphase domains. © 1966 The American Institute of Physics.